Replying to comments made by the Office of the Prime Minister on the situation in which Urban Development and Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett has found himself embroiled, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo said that by turning down the minister’s offer of resignation, the Prime Minister had endorsed the minister’s actions.

Dr Vassallo said it was more than disappointing that the Office of the Prime Minister had responded to criticism in a blatantly partisan manner when it had replied to an earlier statement from AD on Sunday.

“Alternattiva Demokratika has been consistently careful not to allow its criticism to sink to the level of partisan propaganda, which the other two parties have inflicted on the country for far too long. The Prime Minister’s very public failure to act decisively in confronting Minister Mugliett’s bungling attempt to shield his canvassers after they were found guilty of corruption by a court of law, could not pass without comment.

“AD has never played any other party’s game and the Office of the Prime Minister does the country a grave disservice in its pathetic attempt to reduce a matter of judicially certified corruption, compounded by political bungling, to a question of gaining political mileage,” Dr Vassallo said.

“By refusing Minister Mugliett’s offer of resignation, the Prime Minister has endorsed Minister Mugliett’s actions and has taken responsibility for them, leaving the country to wonder what could possibly explain such a serious political error.

“In the light of the Prime Minister’s actions, his words about a Whistleblower Act, and a promise of a Freedom of Information Act in the final months of a 20-year Nationalist administration of the country’s public affairs, is too little too late and cannot be laid as an effective smokescreen for its current scandalous behaviour.”